Party Planning Simplicity in Retrospect

If you've followed my blog at all, you know this past weekend was the big first birthday party for our little man. My goal was definitely to keep it simple - return to the basics. No theme, no fuss. Other than some last minute location changes due to weather, and the chaos of trying to collect everyone and get out of the house "on time," I feel like it was a huge simplicity success, even though people have called shenanigans based on the pictures. I promise - it was much simpler than any of Li'l G's affairs!

The smash cake:

Why, yes, it looks like I spent hours on this cake. Reality? Bake time + 20-25 minutes. Cake = storebought yellow cake mix. I suffocated my desire to make a cake from scratch. My stress level thanks me. Icing = storebought vanilla, separated to make all the different colors. Minimal food coloring, pudding mix, a spatula and Ziploc bag later - voila! Done and done. Candle? Total dollar store goodness.

Cupcakes and goody bags for the guests:

Courtesy of my friends at Meijer. One perk of back to school sales starting unreasonably early? Cheap crayons and card games! Goody bag = card game, crayons and bubbles. Cupcakes = yellow and chocolate. Done and done.

Decorations:

Courtesy of The Dollar Tree. Bags of balloons, Banner and lung power of family and friend...and slobber of Li'l G who wanted to help. A little time consuming to tie up balloons (maybe an hour-ish for the blowing up and tying and pinning), but it was a great time with the moms, me and my friend Alice just sitting around talking and "working". No fuss, no stress, lots of laughs and a few popped balloons later...voila. Done and done.

Food:
Courtesy of Costco. No photo, because I also decided to go low-key with the camera (I know, I know - who AM I? In my low-key camera work, I realized in hindsight we didn't get any family photos with the birthday boy...doh!). Really, who needs a picture of a sandwich tray and chips? The only slightly stressful moment was realizing that Costco's estimate on how much people eat versus how much people actually eat was a bit off, and we kind of ran out of food for latecomers. Lesson learned. Still, no assembling, cooking or arranging for me. Add a couple coolers of beverages and we are...done and done!

Cleanup was just a matter of taking down the balloons and popping them, though my mother in law was kind enough to send us home and finish for us since the kids were pretty droopy eyed by the end of the evening. No naps will do that to you...and mama and daddy too.

So, you see, it may LOOK like I did a lot of work, but I really didn't. At all. Simple can still be stylin', especially with some great photo editing. ;) And we had fun...so much fun!

That said, this party planner is done until October...

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